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In a year filled with remarkably strange and novel developments, Fleetwood Mac has somehow become one of the biggest musical acts of 2020. TikTok user @ 420doggface208, aka Nathan Apodaca, became something of a name family after his longboarding video featuring the “Dreams” soundtrack went incredibly viral earlier this month. While they’ve already garnered countless donations, a new Ocean Spray truck, and paying customers for their custom Halloween costumes, Fleetwood Mac has reaped considerable profit.
Earlier this week, the group returned to the Billboard Top 40 for the first time in decades. “Dreams” recorded no. 21 and may not have finished scaling the graphs. It takes an incredibly specific set of conditions for something like this to maintain its viral lifespan – Apodaca’s willingness to put up with its five minutes, plus the band’s dizzying embrace of TikTok has certainly helped. Mick Fleetwood, who joined the platform and glided around, could have bought it in an extra week on the chart, and Stevie Nicks’ contribution could ensure it goes up more places.
You can attribute it to “Dreams” itself, a perfect and beloved song that always returns to popular culture in one form or another. But this kind of surprise resurgence of songs from decades ago is becoming the new normal. In the summer, a pair of reaction video twins sent Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight” back to the charts. (It remains to be seen whether the controversial use of the song at a recent Trump rally will give it a similar boost.)
These are just two of the new avenues for old artists to regain a popular foothold, be it podcasts, memoirs, or viral TikTok challenges. Song syncs like, a Netflix movie, can still bring an old song to prominence, but these unpredictable methods are by far the best way to go. Every generation gets their “Don’t Stop Believin ‘” on The sopranos or “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Wayne’s worldBut now those monocultural moments of classic songs are streamed on TikTok on a tight budget.
If this masochistic exercise is allowed: Consider the viral rap challenges they consumed on both sides of the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton and Bon Jovi approached the “Black Beatles” mannequin challenge as a final attempt to woo voters who Ultimately, they did not come in sufficient numbers in the necessary states. As a good game for the song name, Paul McCartney tried it. Future’s “Mask Off” challenge featured so many unexpected cover artists. But there is a degree of coat failures, and on the part of top brand bidders, deliberate attempts to make these things happen, that something like the resurgence of “Dreams” doesn’t conjure up. The difference isn’t so much about Where America Is Right Now as it is about the complete anarchy of what makes a chart reappear.
Any number of indie trending stars, from Beach Bunny to beabadoobee, can probably testify that having even a three-year-old song popped out of nowhere is a dizzying experience. Even in a case like Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts”, a song can go super viral on TikTok two years after its release, to the point where you had no choice but to include it as a bonus track on the deluxe version of Because I love you. No one, including the artists and their top label managers, seems to understand what’s going to stay the way “Dreams” has.
Even if the main vessels for the younger generations to find out about classical artists fade further into obscurity: think of classic rock radio, Guitar Hero, or even american idol – There will always be a revivalist spirit under new unpredictable conditions. The virality of TikTok really feels like it could emerge from any legacy classic rock act with the right vibe or cultural position; it’s just your call to join the skates.
